6 Things You Should Never Leave Off Your Resume

As you prepare for yet another round of job hunting, you may wonder why no one is calling you in for an interview. The problem could be staring you right in the face — it could be your resume. One of the keys that can open the door to your next job is your resume. That’s why it’s important to make sure it’s in the best shape possible.

While there are some things you should never include in your work history, there are also some elements that should never be left off. Even if your resume is perfect in every way, forgetting to include one or two of these elements could hurt you. It could mean the difference between a job offer and spending endless nights on career websites searching for new job postings. Here are five things you should never leave off your resume.

1. Key words

Job applicant | Joe Raedle/Newsmakers

Yes, this will require you to actually read the entire job description. It might be tempting, but don’t just fire off a resume based on the job title. You can get yourself into a lot of trouble this way. If you want to increase your chances of snagging a job, make sure to include key words from the job posting. This will benefit you in the event your resume is being read by a resume-scanning program. These programs will only pick out the resumes that most closely match key words from a job description.